Sparta - Peter Karp, singer-songwriter, guitarist and keyboard player, will be the featured artist in the Sparta Summer Concert series at 7 p.m. on Friday, July 7, in George Dykstra Park. Karp resides in Nashville and New Jersey ...and anyplace in between, thanks to his trusty RV. Once, while playing ball with his traveling companion, Delilah Dog, a cigarette dangling from his lip and a beat-up guitar propped against the idling RV, a passerby asked, “Sir, are you a vagabond?” To which Karp replied, “Well, I’m a songwriter and musician, so I guess the answer is yes.” Unlike many contemporary performers, Karp takes his lyrics as seriously as his music. He has carved a niche as an up-and-coming contemporary blues/roots artist. “Lyrics are where it begins and ends,” says Karp, who strives to make his songs poignant, funny, irreverent, romantic and true to life. Blues Revue magazine has compared him to John Prine and Jackson Browne “with a healthy dose of blues, too ” The Asbury Park Press called Karp “the future of blues/roots music.” The Sparta Summer Concerts will run through the end of July in George Dystra Park (behind the Sparta Public Library). In the event of inclement weather, concerts are held in the Mohawk Avenue School auditorium, adjacent to the park. Admission to all Sparta Summer Concerts is free. The concerts are sponsored by the Sparta Cultural Affairs Committee in conjunction with the Sparta Recreation and Parks Dept. Funding for the Sparta Cultural Affairs Committee events and the Sparta Summer Concerts is provided by the township and through the support of local businesses and local patrons of the arts. For information, log on to spartaarts.org.